I smiled at the sentiment. "That's so sweet," I said as I took the flower from him. "And you're right, I'm not the roses type of girl," I said. "They're way too cliché."
"Yes!" he exclaimed with a victory fist in the air. We laughed before he kissed me again, slow and sweet. Then he set to work setting the microwave up and I took the food out of bags. There was one thing I didn't see that I hoped he had stashed somewhere in the hopes it wouldn't put me off.
"So, tell me about yourself," I said. "You got a bit of my story at the diner, but I don't know anything about you."
He smiled at me. "My last name is Rider," he said. "My father's first name is my middle name. I have a sister who is twenty-three years younger than I am. My family owns most of the town because my great-something grandfather founded it about two hundred years ago. We're one of the oldest towns in Utah, but we're also one of the smallest because no one knows we're here. This, however, doesn't mean that I grew up here. I was born in Las Vegas, Nevada. My parents met out there and we lived there until I was fifteen. That's when my grandparents died, and we came here to take care of all their assets and businesses. My favorite color is green, favorite food is steak, and I love to cook. I'm also very happy that you decided to take a chance on our diner today because there is no place I would rather be than right here with you."
I smiled at him. "Anyone ever tell you that you're almost too good to be true?" I asked.
He laughed. "No," he confessed. "Around here, people don't say things like that to me. Most people only get close to me because of the family fortune and status. They don't give a shit about who I am."
"Well, I'm not a gold digger," I promised. "My family's old money so I'm secure. I don't need a sugar daddy and I don't care about status. I just want to be around someone who gives a shit about me and doesn't go looking for other options."
"Is this why you asked me if I have a girlfriend?" he asked.
I sighed. "Yeah," I said. "My mother was having an affair for about two years when she and Alan divorced. Alan was having an affair out here with Addie since before they married. The only boyfriend I've ever had decided that I wasn't good enough. He started sleeping with a wanna-be-me knockoff three years before I left him. They're now married and, last I heard, expecting kid number two."
He let out a slow breath. "That sucks," he said. He held my face in his tender grasp. "How anyone could ever be so terrible to you is unthinkable," he said. He kissed my forehead. "You are amazing."
I smiled at him. "You're sweet," I said as I blushed. I sighed and sat down on the bed. He followed me but kept his distance out of respect. "So how many crazy exes do I have to worry about?" I asked.
"Three," he replied. "One of them you already know, and if that doesn't scare you off, you'll meet the other two at some point."
There were only three people I knew here in Adamsville and only one that would be within a reasonable age range for a crazy ex.
"You dated Abigail?" I asked.
He nodded and seemed ashamed of it. "Unfortunately," he said. He sighed. "When I first moved out here, I didn't have friends. This town isn't big on outsiders and that's exactly what I was. One girl walked up to me and welcomed me into town. That was Abigail. She showed me around the school and town and became my best friend. I worked up the courage to ask her out about six months later and she became my first girlfriend. She was all of my firsts," he said. I didn't need him to explain. "When I found out she was using me, I was pretty devastated. The night she left me also happened to be the night she convinced me to jump into bed with her. I went up the canyon after raiding my dad's liquor cabinet and met up with some friends who had previously invited me up for a weekend away. I got drunk and jumped onto one of the ATVs. They couldn't stop me, and I ended up crashing. I was in the hospital for quite a while and between it and physical therapy, it was six months before I healed."
"That's... I'm so sorry," I said. I felt ashamed for what my "family" had done to him.
Wolfgang shrugged. "It is what it is," he said. "You can't change the past. Abigail wasn't the person I thought she was. She likes to pretend that she's sweet and innocent, but she knows where to strike to hurt you most. She is a cunning person."
I nodded in agreement. "I guess that makes sense of some things," I said with a chuckle.
Wolfgang gave me a curious look. "Like what?" he asked.
I shrugged. "She came here before I went to the diner," I said. "We got into an argument. She kept saying that we were sisters and we should act like it and I told her point-blank that she's not my sister. I define sisterhood by my relationship with that person and she hasn't earned that role in my life. She told me that I had no idea what she was capable of and I told her to get out of my life."
Wolfgang nodded. "Yeah, that sounds like her," he said.
"Is she still around your life then?" I asked.
He nodded. "Unfortunately," he said. "She's my sister's teacher and has decided that, especially with access to my life again, she can hold things over me. She specializes in a unique brand of torture and she doesn't like to hear the word 'no'. She's very..." he sighed as he looked for the right word, "precise. She likes to find the perfect wound and keep bothering it until it festers. She and I have gotten into fights so bad that other people have had to step in to break it up. My skin crawls every time I'm around her. It didn't help that her family and mine have been at war for decades."
"Really?" I asked. "So why did you give me a shot after you found out who my stepfather was?" I asked.
"Because the moment you walked into that diner, I knew you were someone I wanted to know," he said. There was a lustful note to his voice that made my knees weaken. "And," he sighed, "if love at first sight is real, I want to see just how real it can be."
I smiled at him and reached for his hand to pull him closer to me. I kissed him and he wrapped his arms around me, deepening the kiss. He pulled me onto his lap, and I straddled him. I met his amber eyes and smiled. "I want to know how real it can be too," I said in a soft voice.
He smiled. He tucked my hair behind my ears. "Where have you been hiding all my life?" he whispered.
I chuckled. "New York," I said. "And where have you been?"
He chuckled. "Right here," he said. "For the first time in my life, I'm grateful to Alan for something. It's not exactly a feeling that I like, but I'm glad that it brought you and I to this moment." He gave me a chaste kiss. "Now what would you like to do? We can do a movie, or see if there's anything on TV until the satellite fails, or we can do a dozen other things. I got a deck of cards if you're interested."
I smiled. It was touching to know that he didn't just assume we could jump into bed even though that's what we wanted. "We'll make a game," I said as I got up. I fished through the bags until I found the deck of cards. "We'll split the deck in half and whoever has the high card gets to ask a question. The low card gets to then answer or take off a piece of clothing."
"I like where this is going," he said.
"You can't skip more than one question in a row. If the other person gets a high card three times in a row, they can either defer the question to the other person or strip something off."
Wolfgang nodded. "Let's do this," he said with a grin. I smiled back at him and made my way back to the bed, peeling the plastic off the box as I moved.
Once I shuffled and passed the cards out, the game began. We drew the top card and laid them out, much like a game of WAR. Wolfgang had an eight; I had a two. I scoffed. "Really?" I asked the cards.
Wolfgang laughed. "Okay, so my first question," he sighed. He was thoughtful for a moment before he nodded. "How are you so sure that Alan isn't your father?" he asked.
I chuckled. "Of course," I said. He gave me an innocent shrug before I told him the truth of what my mother had told me. When I finished, we drew again and this time, I had the high card. "How crazy are the other two crazy exes?" I asked.
Wolfgang laughed. "Anica is a feisty chick," he said. "She
kinda likes to think that she's the only gangster in Adamsville even though she knows she's not. She'll try to attack you, but she won't hurt you." That was comforting.... "Samantha doesn't live near here so you won't have to worry about her at all. She calls, emails, and tries to chat me up to convince me to head back down to Moab. She wants me to hook up with her again, but I have no interest," he said.
We pulled cards again. He had the high card. "How many guys have you been with?" he asked.
"One," I replied. I pulled another card and didn't say anything more. I had an ace, so I knew I was going to win the next round. He pulled his card as well and smirked. We laid them down... and we both had drawn aces.
"So, what do we do when we pull the same card?" he asked.
I hadn't thought about that. "Hmm," I said. "Pull another card," I said. "High card gets two questions."
He nodded and we pulled an additional card. I had the high card. "How many women have you been with?" I asked.
Wolfgang pulled his shirt up and over his head. The sight of a chiseled chest and the torso of a man who cared a great deal about his physique as well as his health had me completely distracted. Damn. It was only as an afterthought that I noticed the scars that littered his torso and arms.
"Next question?" he said.
I shook my head. "Um," I said, struggling to think of something. My mind was a complete fog now that he wasn't wearing a shirt. He had a tattoo of a tribal wolf's head on his chest, upturned as if it would be howling if it had a voice. My throat was dry. I needed a drink. "Hang on," I said as I stood up to get myself a bottle of water. I took a long drink, hoping to give myself the time to relax a little. "Why do your eyes change color?" I asked before I turned back around.
When I turned back around, he was looking at me and I could only describe his face as predatory. My heart started pounding and I stared at him in wonder.
"Genetic trait," he answered. His voice drew me back to the bed. We pulled cards again. He was high. "Why only one?" he asked.
I smiled at him. "Because I didn't find anyone attractive enough to bring home," I said. "Until now."
We drew again. He was high card again. "How far will you let me go?" he asked.
I smiled. "How far do you want to go?" I asked.
He shook his head. "That's not how this game works," he replied. "I ask, you answer. You ask, I answer. Not I ask then you ask."
I chuckled, and then I took off my sweater. Perhaps I was cheating because I was wearing a tank top underneath.
"Oh, now that's not fair," he said.
I smiled. "Tough shit," I said.
Chapter 5 ~Wolfgang~
She took off her sweater and I found myself begging for more. That tank top teased me, and I decided right then that I was going to destroy it by the end of the night. It was low I could see the tops of her milky white breasts. She had a rose vine tattoo on her left arm that started at her wrist and worked up to her elbow. There was another tattoo on her left breast of a butterfly and a yellow ribbon. Her right shoulder showed the tip of a wing.
Her loose blonde hair hung to the left of her neck and brushed her breast. I would have done anything to be those strands. Or her shirt. Or her bra. I wanted to throw the cards aside and make her mine. I wanted to rip those poured on jeans right off her.
I wanted to see the rest of her tattoos.
I wanted to see the rest of her body.
She pulled another card with a smirk on her face to keep the game going. I had to focus on not losing myself to the sight of her, which was so much easier in theory than in practice.
I focused. Through the game, I learned that she loved Alfredo, red was her favorite color, and that she had a brother somewhere out in the world who went missing at only two years old. They weren't sure if he was alive or not as they had never found a trace of him. Her parents had struggled with it for many years with the hopes that he would come home, and now they were expecting a second son.
"That can't be easy for you," I whispered.
Ceres shook her head and I noticed the pain in her eyes. "It's not," she whispered. She let out a shaky breath and brushed away a tear. "Some people think that things like this get easier with time, but they're full of shit," she said. "He's out there, somewhere, and we don't know where. Not knowing is what's killing us. And the fact that it all happened in Scotland..." She shook her head and I thought about what I would do if something happened to Mira. I'd kill someone. I'd hunt for her until I couldn't hunt for her anymore. I would exhaust every lead and run every whisper dry. I reached for her hand and squeezed it. She gave me a smile before she drew a card and the game resumed.
I discovered that she'd been out of the country more times than most people ever get the chance to be. She also told me that she was valedictorian when she graduated a year ahead of her class. Her two best friends were twins who were identical in every way except their personalities. She hated ballet, folk music, and contemporary art. She enjoyed string orchestra, hard rock, and swing dancing. She had basic Judo training, spoke five languages, and knew how to fire a gun.
I said that my favorite color was green, that I loved cooking and playing the guitar, and that my little sister was the most important person in my life. I didn't tell her that she had taken over that role in the hour or two that we'd known each other. I told her that I've been out of the country once to go to France and visit the town where my family came from and that I wasn't likely to leave the country again. I graduated at the head of my class, but I wasn't the top person. I've never been to college and I rarely left Adamsville.
I told her that everyone expected me to stay here and take over after my parents were gone. I knew gun care and safety, I knew how to fire them, and I could hit a target at almost one thousand yards. I told her that I loved hunting and I never killed more than I could use. I wasn't in it for the sport. I could hold my own in a fight and I worked out almost daily.
By the time we were through the deck, she had taken off her boots, and her socks but still wore that damn tank top. I was shirtless, in jeans, and barefoot. She was so open with me that I felt like I had been there with her every step of her life. I felt like I had connected with her on a basic, primal level. I understood that nothing she could do would scare me away and she assured me that she wouldn't go anywhere either, no matter what. She hated people lying to her. She didn't deserve it when they used her the way they had.
We learned a lot about each other in that game and it was a fantastic idea of hers that I may have to remember to recreate in a non-sexual way.
I took the cards, shuffled them, and set them aside. "Now what do you want to do?" I asked.
She looked thoughtful for a moment, as if there was something she wanted, but she didn't want to say it. She smiled and nodded to herself. "I want to see how long you can go without making a move," she said. "Let's watch a movie."
Gods, this girl was torture and I loved it. I stood up and reached for the stack of movies that I'd grabbed. I handed them to her and let her pick one out. Once she chose a movie, I popped it into the TV's DVD player, and sat back down on the bed. "Come here," I said, holding my hand out to her. We lay on our sides the wrong way across the bed. I grabbed a pillow for us to share and spooned her from behind. She held my hand and kept it tucked up by her chest. This woman was pure evil and it only excited me further.
I tried to focus on the movie. She was nice enough to skip through the previews. It was a werewolf movie, which made me think of how interesting it was that she'd picked it. I almost thought that she chose it because she was trying to tell me, but the captivation on her face made me realize that she wasn't. Still, I could tell it called out to her. The writer and director were both Lycan, so the movie was the closest to truth that Hollywood has ever produced. Of course, in true Hollywood fashion, there were still elements that were completely out there.
Instead of watching the movie, I studied her. I watched the intense concentration on her face. I watched the way she relaxed i
n my arms. I watched as the light from the TV played across her body. I watched her chest expand and contract with every breath she took. I felt her heartbeat against my chest. I saw the angel wing tattoo on her back. According to the back of her neck, she was a Libra. Peeking out from the waistband of her jeans was another rose. She may not be a roses kind of girl when it came to receiving flowers, but it was clear that she liked them on her body.
I somehow managed to keep my hands from roaming until the end of the movie. Then, I ran my hand over her flat stomach and kept just below her bra line. She let out a small moan and closed her eyes. I kissed her neck and earlobe. "How far are you willing to let me push things?" I whispered. I brushed my palms against her breasts with the barest of touches. She arched her back and I managed to keep myself from grabbing her the way we both wanted me to.
I kissed her neck again. I took an agonizing and slow path down to her collarbone before I started my way back up. I nibbled on the edge of her earlobe. "Tell me," I whispered to her. My hand was still at her stomach instead of where I wanted it to be, proving how much self-control I still had. If anything interrupted us now, I would have committed murder without a second's hesitation.
She didn't speak. As her chest heaved with her panting, she unbuttoned her pants and guided my hand to the land south of the border. My heart raced as I turned her face toward mine with my other hand and kissed her with so much need that it was almost overpowering. My fingers slipped inside of her. She was hot, wet, and eager. The scent coming from her was intoxicating. She was still chocolate and strawberries and the wolf was getting stronger, but it was her arousal that sent me over the edge. I had to focus just to breathe. I had to remind myself that if I stopped breathing, I would pass out. I had to remind her of the same thing. "Breathe," I whispered to her. She nodded to me, letting me know that she had heard me, but there were moments where I still had to whisper the word to her. And I hadn't touched her that much.
Vanilla Moon: Awakening Page 5